A Zero Dark Thirty Prequel Is Possible, Also Based On A True Story

Zero Dark Thirty could be the most fascinating, or the most controversial, or the most kick-ass film of the holiday season-- given that it's about the Seal Team Six raid that killed Osama bin Laden, it could easily be all three of those things. But nobody really knows yet, since Zero Dark Thirty has yet to screen for any critics, and if anyone has seen it, they're not telling. That'll change soon, though. The review embargo for the new film from The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow ends on Sunday, and we'l have our review posted soon after.

So in these last few days before the Zero Dark Thirty mystery is revealed, why not speculate about what might come after it? Bigelow and her screenwriter collaborator Mark Boal were working on a different bin Laden-focused project, about the failed effort to kill him in Tora Bora in 2001, when history caught up with them and bin Laden was killed in April of 2011. As they told Entertainment Weekly, they scrapped the Tora Bora project to make Zero Dark Thirty after the news broke, but they haven't ruled out returning to it. Asked if a Zero Dark Thirty prequel could happen, Boal said "Yeah, I think so. Why not? But I think the last thing [either of us] wants to do right now is talk about making another movie.”

That's pretty standard talk from someone who just wrapped up a film, and you can't blame them for wanting to focus on what they've just accomplished rather than moving on to what's next. But given that Bigelow and Boal last collaborated on The Hurt Locker, which seems to have a similar tough-guy military theme to Zero Dark Thirty, it wouldn't be totally beyond reason for them to tell another, very different story about Osama bin Laden. But would we rather see the two of them try something new instead? Sounds like both Bigelow and Boal would rather we see Zero Dark Thirty before applying the pressure about what happens next, so let's do them that favor for now.